SEE Check publishes a second round of country reports, this time giving a comprehensive overview of the disinformation landscape across the region for the year 2024.
Introduction
In a series of country reports, SEE Check network gives a comprehensive overview of the disinformation landscape across the region. For the year 2023, SEE Check has published state of disinformation reports for Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro and Albania, as well as a regional report covering the SEE/WB region, including contributions from Serbia.
This country report is a contribution of Raskrinkavanje.me, a fact-checking platform from Montenegro. Raskrinkavanje, founded in 2018 by Center for Democratic transition (CDT), is a verified signatory of International Fact-Checking network (IFCN) and European Fact-Checking Standards Network (EFCSN), Meta’s partner in the Third party fact-checking program and a founding member of the regional SEE Check network.
This report builds upon the previous one, providing updates from 2024 relevant to the information environment in Montenegro.
Disinformation topics and narratives
A large chunk of debunks published by Raskrinkavanje.me in 2024 were global conspiracy theories. The list of those stays pretty much the same as in 2023, with small upgrades in the content, but without creating new, big conspiracy theories.
In 2024. so-called “global elites” and their “evil plans” on creating the world for the rich and depopulating the planet, remains the dominant topic in this area. As usual, important personalities and organizations as Word economic forum (WEF) and their founder Claus Schwab, as well as Bill Gates are still most often represented as the villains pushing for this “new world order”.
Another highly spread narrative is related to satanism and its alleged influence and subversive “satanic” messages sent through different events.
These narratives are mostly spread on social networks with the majority of media staying resistant to this content.
Anti-Western, more precisely anti-EU narratives which are among the most common in Montenegro, are a direct result of Russian propaganda and are dominantly spread through well known pro-Russian websites in Montenegro – IN4S, Borba and Alo onlajn, with great support from pro-Russian social networks users. The weak EU and members leaving it is the most prominent among these narratives, with media and users writing that Germany, Hungary, or any other country might leave the EU.
Another widely spread narrative is that the EU supports fascism and it is pushed through stories such as that the EU chose Ode to joy to be its anthem because it was Adolf Hitler’s favorite composition, as well as that it supports Nazism because its members voted against Russia’s Resolution in the UN which was aimed against Ukraine. Germany, alongside France, is the most common target of these narratives. The EU is also targeted as the helper of “colored revolution” and supporter of violence. And last, but not least, narratives of deviant west, connected with anti-LGBT and anti-migratory narratives are often seen in Montenegro.
Montenegrin and regional politics are local central topics of disinformation alongside the 90’s wars. Srebrenica related disinformation are being repeated from year to year, with the UN’s Resolution on Srebrenica triggering the pro-Russian and Vučić controlled media to produce tons of disinformation. Narrative saying that the Resolution is labelling entire Serbian population as “genocidal” has been spread trough numerous articles, with politicians who supported the Resolution being targeted as individuals who blame Serbian people for genocide.
Pro-Vučić media have a big part in regional false narratives, doing everything to protect the authorities in Serbia and creating disinformation on anyone who opposes Vučić. They represent Vučić as the victim of threats, both local and worldwide, as well as targeting his opponents with disinformation and slander campaigns.
Antiscience narratives are, once again, mostly related to disinformation on COVID-19 vaccine and denial of climate change. Disinformation on vaccine’s side effects are being published on social networks on a daily basis, and are still spreading the same narrative – that COVID-19 was made up and that vaccines are deadly.
Editing photos of famous magazines, lying about health issues of celebrities, publishing opinions of those who are not credible, creating false stories on heart attacks, as well as forging statements are just some of the ways these narratives are being distributed.
Climate change denial is catching stride in Montenegro. Claims that are trying to prove that climate change is actually “geoengineering” or fictional and directed are found every day and are aimed to show that floods, fires and animals dying, are all part of a “green agenda”.
Conspiracy theories of “climate lockdowns” and intentionally creating floods and hurricanes are also being spread. Finally, the role of human involvement in climate change is constantly being downplayed by disinformation.
Actors contributing to spread disinformation
News media in Montenegro, especially web portals remain one of the main sources of political disinformation. Most relevant sources among them are pro-Vučić websites IN4S, Borba and Alo onlajn who are focused on disinformation about local, regional as well as European politics.
Poll conducted by CDT showed that 34,2% of people see Serbia as a country where most disinformation is imported from. The USA and Russia follow behind.
However, social media users remain the dominant source of non-political disinformation. Polls show that every fifth citizen believes in disinformation at least once a week, and that close to 70 percent of people in the country see disinformation as a problem.
Facebook and X remain dominant social media platforms where disinformation is disseminated. X accounts in Montenegro are very often used by the political parties activists who anonymously post various content, spread political disinformation, hate speech, nationalism and misogyny.
On the other hand, Facebook remains the network where media have the largest audience base and where portals who create disinformation are the most active. IN4S and Borba have the most significant reach on Facebook. Facebook still remains the place where conspiracy theories on health, vaccines and climate change are dominantly disseminated.
Tactics and techniques used to spread disinformation
Fake polls are the most prominent tactic of political disinformation in Montenegro. Recent local elections in Podgorica confirmed this as fake polls were published online in the same manner as in previous years. Fake polls are being published on a party’s controlled Facebook accounts, and are then spread across the internet with misuse of credentials of polling agencies. Media often use unverified accounts on social networks as relevant sources which leads to totally biased reporting as they use accounts that are very often controlled by political parties. Once a video, photo or news is published on an “influential” X account, it soon finds its way to the online media, with the same political context it had when it was published on X.
Another often noticed tactic is connected with online scams. Bizarre ads claiming that certain activists and politicians are dead were common on Facebook and were leading to alleged cryptocurrency trading websites.
Fake accounts on Facebook are also being created with the goal of abusing brands of supermarkets and creating fake giveaways. The link shared in such posts takes users onto the websites that steal their data and/or subscribe them to suspicious subscriptions.
As per usual, nationalistic divisions also generate disinformation and slander campaigns. This was obvious when UN’s Resolution on genocide in Srebrenica was passed, and when Montenegro’s ruling majority responded with Resolution on genocide in Jasenovac.
Backlash against fact-checking
Fact-checkers in Montenegro have been subjects of threats and insults by individuals and are under pressure as part of the NGO and civil society who have been targeted by political structures. Media that are getting their content labelled as disinformation are often attacking fact-checkers, calling them “mercenaries” as a part of the larger narrative on NGOs.
In 2024, part of Montenegro’s government tried to impose a Law on foreign agents which would, as in Russia or Georgia, see all NGOs financed from abroad, including ones that are running fact-checking and investigative journalism programs, branded as foreign agents. Proposing the law on foreign agents was seen as an attempt to silence the fact-checking and NGOs that criticize government and media.
The campaign for this law was strongly supported by pro-Vučić media IN4S and Borba, who have disinformed the public that the law is based on American FARA. As a part of the campaign advocating this law, vice-president of the Government Milun Zogović called NGO activists “rabbits”, which, in context he gave, means “vermin”.
Montenegro remains an hostile environment for journalists in general, as the country saw the tycoon owner of Ski-resort and his security beat up Pobjeda journalist Ana Raičković and her son.
Events instigating the spread of disinformation
Presidential Elections in the USA affected the entire information landscape in Montenegro. The fake narratives aimed at discrediting Kamala Harris are similar to those used to attack her when she was part of Joe Biden’s administration. Harris has also been linked to another well-known fake narrative – an association with Jeffrey Epstein. Predictably, conspiracy theorists tried to suggest that Harris supports population reduction. A slip of hers was reused, leading social media users to read once more that she intends to reduce the population rather than pollution – which was her actual intent. Within this pervasive narrative, there were also claims that she allegedly advised young people not to have children due to climate change. Harris was accused of supporting the legalization of heroin and cocaine, though this actually concerns the decriminalization of these drugs; providing a recipe for roasting babies; withdrawing from the presidential race; as well as that she uses a Nazi slogan in her campaign.
Russian aggression on Ukraine and propaganda related to this remained high on the list of instigators of disinformation. The dominant target was, once again, president Zelensky and the dominant narrative was related to his wealth and spending. He was falsely accused of buying Sting’s winery, biggest casino on Cyprus, King Charls’ mansion, two big yachts, while his wife Olena was falsely accused of buying expensive jewellery.
The spectacular Olympic games in Paris instigated a huge wave of disinformation on social networks in Montenegro and the entire region. The opening ceremony was targeted as “satanic”, “trans-human” and various claims of trans persons allegedly taking part in the games have been made. Swimmer Leah Tommas was targeted with a photoshopped picture of her crotch together with false claims about her participation in competition. The most prominent case was Imane Khelif’s. The Algerian boxer dominated her category so much that claims of her being a man became viral. Local nationalism was also integrated in the games as Montenegrin water polo national team had Serbian flag photoshopped behind them as well as false quotes of Jacques Chirac that Serbian children will never smile again were distributed when Novak Đoković won the medal.
COVID-19 and vaccine conspiracy theories are still ongoing four years after the pandemic has started. Conspiracy theories are still being connected to Bill Gates, while claims that vaccines are responsible for health problems and deaths of millions of people are still being shared. The MMR vaccine has also been repeatedly targeted with false claims, which can be related to the low rate of vaccination in Montenegro.
UN’s Resolution on Srebrenica genocide sparked nationalistic-based disinformation and genocide denial. Secretary general of NATO was targeted by claims that he called genocide in Srebrenica “false”, while genocide was denied all over pro-Vučić media, but dominant narrative was that UN and everyone supporting the resolution blame all Serbs for genocide. This narrative was repeatedly shared through media and often by accusing local politicians, such as president Jakov Milatović, that they labelled Serbs as genocidal.
Anti-disinformation update
In 2024. Center for democratic transition organized a big anti-disinformation conference where prominent speakers, including regional fact-checkers, journalists, ministers, politicians, lawyers, and others discussed politics related disinformation.
CDT also hosted multiple podcasts where disinformation was the subject of discussion, where representatives of institutions and prominent lawyers took part.
Raskrinkavanje’s fact-checkers took part in the POINT conference, as well as Global fact conference, both held in Sarajevo.
The Digital forensic center also hosted a big disinformation conference where important regional experts took part.
Legislation overview
In 2024. Montenegro adopted a new set of laws to get Interim Benchmark Assessment Report (IBAR), but those laws are still superficial when it comes to the real problems and are still to follow EU laws on these matters.
DSA and DPA are still being ignored in Montenegro, with media laws just scratching the surface on transparency of the ownership. Disinformation still has no mention in the current laws and the strategic approach in this area is necessary with institutional infrastructure still lacking.
